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Living With Music: A Playlist by Laura Dave

On Wednesdays, this blog is the delivery vehicle for “Living With Music,” a playlist of songs from a writer or some other kind of book-world personage.

This week: Laura Dave, whose new novel is “The Divorce Party.”

Laura Dave’s May 2008 Playlist:

1. Carolina, M. Ward. I listen to songs on repeat while I write. While working on my first book, I listened to “Call Me on Your Way Back Home,” by Ryan Adams, more than 3,500 times. It sounds a little intense, I know, but it actually helps me with my work more than anything else. While writing “The Divorce Party,” my mainstay was M. Ward’s “Carolina” — a moody, bluesy, guitar-driven number that captures the moment after the moment when you could have changed everything. It still breaks my heart open. (3,000 times later…)

2. Fake Empire, The National. The first time I heard The National’s album “Boxer,” I sat down on the floor and listened to the entire album straight through. There is truly not a bad track on it: “Slow Show” takes my breath away. But if I were actually making a mix here, I would definitely put “Fake Empire” in slot two, which has the best final minute of any song I’ve heard in the last decade.

3. With Arms Outstretched, Rilo Kiley. Jenny Lewis seems to be something of an Indie-world queen, singing with The Postal Service, The Watson Twins and — of course — Rilo Kiley. It isn’t that Lewis is off-pitch in the infectious “With Arms Outstretched,” but she isn’t exactly on-pitch either. I mean this in a good way. Maybe it is how natural the song sounds as a result, or the fact that the band all joins in with the singing midway through, but, when listening to “Arms” I can’t help but feel like I am sitting around a campfire somewhere.

4. When I Get to the Border, Linda Thompson & Richard Thompson. Richard Thompson is an amazing guitar player. For “1952 Vincent Black Lightning,” in my mind, he is legendary. I love this duet with then-wife, Linda, from their last collaboration together. Word is that they broke up during the tour, and that it was so acrimonious that Linda would sometimes trip Richard on stage. Call it the eternal optimist in me, but I like to imagine that they have a different ending: the two of them getting in their car, Richard strumming on his guitar in the passenger seat, and Linda hitting the high-notes of the chorus, just as she drives them straight to whatever border could make it all feel okay again.

5. The Trapeze Swinger, Iron And Wine. This is my form of meditation: Iron And Wine’s 9:32 gem, about memory and wonderment, loss and grace, and every other great thing that Sam Beam is able to touch in a way that makes the world feel good and whole. The song, which takes place in part at a carnival, is both happy and sad, and here’s where the meditation part comes in. Sometime around halfway through, I forget that there is a world that exists outside of it.

6. Astral Weeks, Van Morrison. What is better than Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks?” My favorite track from this 1968 album makes a prominent appearance in “The Divorce Party.” (It comes toward the end of the book, so I’ll keep which song a secret.) I’ve also been listening to the title song a lot lately. It is quirky, original, and sweetly hopeful. And it speeds up, just in time, to find its near-perfect rhythm. It feels like spring to me.

7. Cars And Telephones, Arcade Fire. Arcade Fire must have recorded this soft and heartbreaking demo in a silo or something. It doesn’t sound like a lot of their other music, and yet it does. It makes me cry almost every time I hear it, which apparently I think is a good thing.

8. Girl from the North Country, Bob Dylan. There are two versions of this classic that I love: the one you can find on “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” and the one where Johnny Cash joins in. I love the speed and balance of the original, but there is just something about those two incredible men singing, together, about the girl they can no longer get to. I’ve tried to figure out which version I like more, but then I remember that, in both, I get to hear Dylan say: “Well, if you go when the snowflakes storm, when the rivers freeze and summer ends, please see that she has a coat so warm to keep her from the howling wind.”

9. Hush If You Must, Brooke Waggoner. I saw this Nashville-based singer-songwriter at The Canal Room several months ago, and she amazed me. “Hush If You Must” has been on my rotation since. It is whimsical and surprising — and the best part is that over the course of the song Waggoner seems to be surprising herself, as much as anything else, which I think is incredibly brave.

10. The Shade of Poison Trees, Dashboard Confessional. This is the title track off of my favorite Dashboard album. The album returns to Dashboard’s trademark acoustic form, but it ups the ante in every way. Many of the songs seem to be telling an overlaying story, maybe about how we find what is coming next, how we move forward. “Shade,” in particular, gets more and more beautiful every time I hear it.

11. The Temptation of Adam, Josh Ritter. I’ve been a little in love with Josh Ritter’s music since a friend introduced me to it last year. “The Temptation of Adam” shows what he can with that voice of his. I love this song because of that, and because of the story it tells of two people falling in love while they are waiting for the end of the world “in a top secret location 300 feet below the ground.” If that sounds like a strange love story, it is. It is strange and mythical and precise and incredibly wonderful.

12. She’s Got You, Cat Power. I remember, so clearly, hearing the Patsy Cline version of this song as a little girl, sitting on the carpet in my family’s living room. I rediscovered the song, post-college, when I stumbled upon Loretta Lynn’s take on it while stuck on a mountain somewhere in Tennessee. Now, Cat Power has kicked up a distant, backroom version complete with her own brand of sad-sexiness. I love the different ways all three hit this song. Listening to them back to back (to back) is really interesting.

13. If It’s the Beaches, The Avett Brothers. I only recently discovered The Avett Brothers: Carolina boys who are part-country, part-bluegrass, part-folksy-rock. Their music is deeply soulful, playful, and open. “If it’s the Beaches” is about second chances. It reminds me of “Windfall” by Son Volt … and every great road trip I’ve ever taken. I am also always a fan of lyrics that sound like promises, and I love the promises they seem willing to make, especially here.

thank you for mentioning astral weeks. that’s one of my favorite albums, and yet it’s so often forgotten, overshadowed by van morrison’s more popular tunes. you should check out cypress avenue and madame george on the album. both heartbreaking and beautiful.

Richard and Linda Thompson – Everything the Thompsons touch turns to pure gold. I first became enamored with Richard and Linda performing together. Then came a great solo album by Linda Thompson. Then I discovered an absolutely stunning folk album, “Lief and Liege”, by Fairport Convention featuring the fabulous Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson on guitar – this is probably my favorite album of all time. Recently I’ve discovered a strong rockabilly album by Richard and Linda’s son, Teddy Thompson. There isn’t one musical family in America that approaches the royalty of the Thompsons. The only one that comes close is Montreal’s McGarigle-Wainwright family.

“When I get to the Border” is a beautiful song, but it’s from their 1973 album “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”. The tour recounted is for 1983’s “Shoot Out The Lights” whose material is very apt for the situation and probably worked to make the album better.